English lesson plans

for Grade 11
Lessons in this section
11 Foundation 1 Speaking: the chocolate factory 338
11 Foundation 2 Listening: The price of greatness 341
11 Advanced 1 Integrated skills: preparing a presentation 347
11 Advanced 2 Reading and summarising a text: Hair 350
Resource sheets for the lessons 354

Using these lesson plans

The lessons for Grade 11 represent the range of skills but are not specifically
linked. The focus is moving away from discrete-item grammar towards skills and
tasks. There is also a move to integrate one or more skills in the completion of the
task and to involve the students in researching topics from the Internet. The
objectives for the lessons are drawn from the curriculum standards. Main standards
are listed in bold and subsidiary standards in normal print under the objectives at
the top of the lesson plan.
Each lesson plan has sufficient material to support at least 45 minutes of direct
teaching but many of the activities stretch into a homework or the next lesson, for
example lesson 11A.1.
Lesson 11 Foundation 1 involves a task-based simulation, where students adopt
roles in order to complete a specific task. The outcome of the task is not fixed at
the beginning, this demands a more involved level of oral interaction to complete
the task.
Lesson 11 Foundation 2 requires students to evaluate and respond to a persuasive
argument in a listening text, as well as use the Internet to search for information
about famous people.
Lesson 11 Advanced 1 involves the students preparing a ten-minute oral
presentation on an issue-laden topic. They are given a structure, but are required to
search the Internet for content details.
Grade 11 Advanced 2 integrates reading with summary writing and gives students
a series of steps to follow in order to reduce a text to about half its original length.
Answer keys are provided to guide teacher correction and feedback but where tasks
are subjective, these answers are not intended to be presented to students as the
only right way of completing the given tasks.

337 | English sample lessons | Grade 11 Supreme Education Council 2004

 11F.1 Speaking: the chocolate
factory
Objectives Interact in group, paired and more formal discussion, speaking at length.
Grade 11F curriculum
standards 4.2, 4.4, 4.5,
Show awareness of other participants.
4.6, 4.7, 5.4 Discuss a present scenario, weighing alternatives, options and consequences.

Presentation
Some of the procedure and materials for this lesson are adapted from
Resources Business Roles by John Crowther Alwyn, Cambridge University Press 1997.
OHTs 11F.1a, 11F.1b,
Set the scene
11F.1c
Worksheet 11F.1a Show OHT 11F.1a. Ask the students about their chocolate-eating habits.
Whats your favourite chocolate bar?
Do you like nuts in the chocolate?
Which is your favourite brand of chocolate? Cadburys, Mars, Hershey?
What other brands do you know?
Why do you think chocolate is so popular?
If you are a lover of chocolate, what do you think the ideal job would be?
Owner of a chocolate factory? Chocolate taster?
Do you know what chocolate is made from?
Show OHT 11F.1b.
Get students to refer to this website for more information about chocolate:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/hottopics/chocolate/
Ranking
Tell the students that they work for a chocolate manufacturer in Australia. The
company is intending to build a new factory. Hand out worksheet 11F.1a. Get
students to look at the list of important factors to be considered when deciding
where to put the factory. In pairs, have them choose the 10 most important factors.
When this has been done, show OHT 11F.1c to get feedback from all the pairs. Go
through the list of factors, and find out how many pairs have chosen that particular
factor. The 10 factors with the most votes will form the list for the class. Guide
the class in their choices to help them focus on the key factors.
Get them to eliminate factors of little importance.
beauty of site, near to a beach.
Have students sort factors into those which are important to the workers and those
which are important to the management. Students discuss the problems that arise
from these different needs.
quality of public transport, cost of housing in the area, quality of facilities
availability of government subsidies, loans etc.; labour costs; location of
competitors

338 | English sample lessons | Grade 11 Supreme Education Council 2004

 Get them to separate the direct-interest factors from social and environmental
factors that may not affect the workers or the managers but may affect the
community as a whole.
image of town, area or country, levels of pollution, social problems in area
Get students to rank their key factors from 1 to 10. Monitor to find pairs with
different rankings, put the pairs together and get them to justify to each other their
selection and order. The important thing here is to introduce the students to the
factors which they will be discussing later, and to get them to think about the issues
from a disinterested point of view so that they can then compare their changing
point of view once they become commercially involved.
Practice
Preparation
Resources
Hand out worksheet 11F.1b. Give students time to read it and then check
Worksheets 11F.1b, comprehension with a few questions. Explain any difficult vocabulary. Hand out
11F.1c(i) and(ii)
Teachers resource
worksheets 11F.1c(i) and (ii) and tell students these are their fact sheets. Briefly
11F.1 explain that:
the first graph shows the cost of factory space;
the second graph shows the cost of labour in the places under consideration;
the map shows the main population centres.
Hand out role cards prepared from teachers resource 11F.1. If there is an odd
number, get two students to job share or leave out some of the jobs, for example
F or G. The more demanding roles are A and C; decide whether to give these to
more fluent students or the less prominent students. Get students to read through
their roles. Ask them to find all the other students with the same role and to sit
together. They may end up in pairs, threes or fours, depending on the size of the
class. Get them to prepare their common role together. Give them some time to
think, discuss and note down what they wish to say. Monitor, answer any questions
they may have and ask checking questions to make sure they have understood the
implications of their role.
Questions to the Chief Executives: Why do you favour Melbourne? Why
cant you say so at the beginning of the discussion?
Question to the Production Managers: Why do you think Perth is the best
location?
Question to the Financial Directors: Why not Geelong?
Question to the Head of Sales: Why Sydney?
Have students practise speaking with each other, taking it in turns to argue their
point of view, refine it, add better ideas from the group. Make sure they are not
reading from their role cards and emphasise eye contact, body language, repetition
of key ideas, etc.
Production
Roleplay
Resources
When they are ready, put students into groups of seven so that each role is
OHT 11F.1d represented in each group. Show OHT 11F.1d and encourage students to use these
Worksheet 11F.1e
phrases in their discussion.

339 | English sample lessons | Grade 11 Supreme Education Council 2004

 Tell students they are having a board meeting and the aim of the meeting is to
arrive at a decision as to which site would be the best for the new chocolate
factory. Tell students to follow the agenda below during their board meeting.
1 Board members introduce themselves and say what their job is.
2 Chairperson starts the discussion by outlining the advantages and
disadvantages of each site.
3 Board members each express their point of view. Others can interrupt, agree or
disagree, ask for clarification etc. by using the phrases on OHT 11F.1d.
4 When everyone has had their say, the Chairperson concludes the discussion by
getting the group to reach a decision, based on the discussion.
Leave the chairpersons to chair their meetings. There is no one correct answer to
the discussion. Allow different groups to come up with different solutions. Dont
interrupt and try not to correct language errors during discussion. (If one student is
making a particular repeatedly, give them a brief written note.) Take notes of
particularly good arguments or developments as well as errors. If you have a
previous agreement with your class about video filming them, film excerpts of the
discussion. Otherwise audio tape them. Save this material for a feedback session,
probably in the next lesson, when you have had time to review what youve
recorded.

When groups have finished discussing, get each Chief Executive to feed back to
Feedback
the whole class the decision they arrived at, giving reasons. Based on your written
notes, give some positive feedback, noting any particularly appropriate language,
expression of point of view, gesture etc.
In the follow-up lesson, use selected excerpts of the tape to get students to do self-
and peer-correction, and to in-put the phrases on OHT 11F.1d if these were
omitted in the discussion. You can do this by playing back the tape or by giving
students transcripts of what they said.
Get students to fill in the evaluation form on worksheet 11F.1e. Ask them to
discuss the results of the evaluation with a partner. Monitor and talk to individuals,
getting them to focus on their perceived strengths and weaknesses in speaking at
length and helping them to set goals for future speaking practice.

Summary for students

In this lesson, you were asked to present a specific point of view about a particular
situation and to negotiate with others. This allowed you to concentrate on the
communication skills involved, how to say it, as well as what to say. You had time
to prepare your ideas beforehand, in order to allow you to present the opinion you
were given more efficiently. You practised showing awareness of other group
members and interacting with them. The phrases I gave you helped you to do this
in a polite way. Some of you had problems with accuracy finding the right
vocabulary and grammar; others had problems with fluency speaking at length
without hesitation, giving good examples to back up your point of view,
convincing others. Others had problems with group dynamics turn-taking,
listening to others, keeping to the point, being too passive. The evaluation sheet I
gave you helped you to reflect on how well you interacted in the discussion, and to
focus on what to improve: accuracy, fluency, or group dynamics.

340 | English sample lessons | Grade 11 Supreme Education Council 2004

 11F.2 Listening: The price of
greatness
Objectives Understand and respond to persuasive arguments.
Grade 11F curriculum
Search the Internet for information related to a text.
standards 3.2, 5.11, 6.5

Pre-listening
Some of the procedure and materials for this lesson are adapted from Success
Resources International Teachers Book by Marian Barry, Georgian Press 1998.
OHT 11F.2
Brainstorming
Worksheets 11F.2a(i)
and (ii) Show the students OHT 11F.2. See if they can identify the people pictured. Do
they know what they were famous for? What do they know about these people?
Where and when did they live?
Answer key
Mother Theresa of Calcutta. Born 1910 in Macedonia. Worked with poor people in India,
and all over the world. Died 1997
Nelson Mandela. Born in South Africa in 1918. Leader of the fight against apartheid.
Imprisoned in 1962 and released in 1990. Subsequently became President of South
Africa.
Princess Diana: Born UK 1962. Married Prince Charles in 1981. Had two sons,
subsequently divorced. Active in charity work. Killed in a car crash in Paris in 1997.
Mahatma Gandhi. Born 1869 in India. Became a lawyer. Went to South Africa,
campaigned against discrimination. Returned to India to peacefully campaign for
independence from Britain. Assassinated in 1948.

Research
Ask the students to name someone that they admire. It should be someone who is
famous for their lifes work and achievements. Get them to research the person on
the Internet, and find out more about their life. Have them work individually or in
pairs/groups.
Let students use the questions on worksheet 11F.2a(i) as a basis for their research.
Discuss the answers with the students. Feedback some of the answers on the board.
Matching
Tell students they are going to listen to a radio interview, where two speakers are
discussing a book called The price of greatness. First, they are going to look at
some of the vocabulary which is key to understanding the interview. Get them to
do the matching exercise on worksheet 11F.2a(ii).
Answer key
1 genius g a person of exceptional ability
2 inner drive f a strong determination to achieve
3 genetic b inherited through your parents
4 setback a something making it difficult for you to do what you want
5 excel c reach an extremely high standard
6 psychological unease d unhappy feelings, anxiety and depression
7 mediocre e average, not particularly good

341 | English sample lessons | Grade 11 Supreme Education Council 2004

 Prediction
From the research they did on famous people and on the vocabulary they have just
learned, get students to predict what qualities they think are required for a person to
become truly great. Remind students that the interview is about a book called The
Price of Greatness. Elicit negative as well as positive qualities.
Do you have to be rich?
Do you have to come from a powerful family?
Is greatness genetic?
Where does inner drive come from?
Do you have to suffer or have setbacks?
Do you have to have a happy family life?
Do you have to have a good husband or wife supporting you?
What role does psychological unease play in becoming great?
Get students to come to the board and write down the characteristics of greatness
as a brainstorm on the board. Ask them to choose three of the factors from the
board that they think the interview will cover. Get them to write their list of three
in their books.
While
Main ideas
listening
Have students listen to tape 11F.2 and check their predictions. Erase predictions
Resources which werent mentioned in the interview, and add any others students remember
Tape 11F.2 which werent on the original list.
Worksheet 11F.2b
Answer key
Only keep the qualities that students heard. Dont give them the any qualities
they didnt hear in the first listening. As they listen a second and third time, build
up the list.
sacrifice of personal happiness
inner drive
inborn talent
inherited brain chemistry
parents
environment
setbacks
loss of a parent
illness, disability
difficult family relationships
feeling of inferiority
depression, psychological unease
peace and quiet
time alone

Details
Get students to read through section A on worksheet 11F.2b and to answer any
questions they can. Play the interview for the second time. Tell students to note
down their answers (they do not need to answer in full sentences) while they are
listening. Tell them that these first questions focus on factual information which
can be taken straight from the tape.

342 | English sample lessons | Grade 11 Supreme Education Council 2004

 Answer key
1 No, the speaker thinks that great thinkers often had a difficult childhood or problems in
their lives.
2 Einstein and Picasso
3 Depression/illness/loss of a family member/feelings of inferiority
4 The sacrifice of personal happiness

Add any new qualities that this activity draws out to the list on the board.
Between the lines
Get students to listen to the tape for a third time and choose the correct answer
from the multiple choices in section B on worksheet 11F.2b. These answers are a
little more difficult and require some interpretation. Have students compare their
answers in pairs. If there are disagreements, isolate the questions they are having
difficulty with and play the tape a third time, getting students to focus on the
problem areas.
Answer key
1 b
2 a
3 c
4 b

Add any new qualities that this activity draws out to the list on the board.
Post-listening
Beyond the lines
Resources
Get students to apply the qualities on the board to the famous person they
Worksheet 11F.2c researched on the Internet. In pairs, get them to discuss and evaluate how true they
think Professor Ludwigs theory of the price of greatness is, giving examples from
their research. Monitor and help students express their opinions, agree and
disagree.
Personalisation
Ask students to assess how well-balanced, happy or depressed, sociable or
unsociable they are. Get them to describe their characters in this way to their
partners. Hand out the questionnaire on worksheet 11F.2c. Tell them this is a
magazine-style personality quiz, to find out how happy you are; it should not be
taken too seriously. For each question, get students to tick the answer which fits
them best. Have students compare their results with a partner and discuss how
effective they think the questionnaire is and how closely it matches their earlier
assessment of themselves. Get them to discuss which personality type A, B, or C
the questionnaire wants them to be and why. Monitor the groups, and help
students to express their ideas. Remind them of the conversation strategies they
already know for turn-taking, eliciting ideas from each other, expressing opinions
and agreeing and disagreeing. Make notes of their typical problems or errors.
Feedback
As a whole class, get students to share and compare their ideas and opinions. Give
students anonymised examples of errors they made while discussing and get them
to make corrections and re-express the utterances.

343 | English sample lessons | Grade 11 Supreme Education Council 2004

 Summary for students

In this lesson, you began by discussing the lives of some famous people. You then
thought about your favourite famous person and researched their life on the
Internet. From that, you began to collect a list of qualities that go towards making
some people great. You then listened to a radio interview which added a different
perspective or point of view to the topic. The way you practised listening was like
this.
First, before listening, you predicted what it was you were going to hear.
Then, on the first listening, you picked out the key phrases and through these
the main ideas in this case, the qualities of greatness.
Then, you listened for details who, what, why.
After that. you listened between the lines to infer the reaction and the mood
of the speakers discussing Professor Ludwigs book (the interviewer was less
convinced by the theory than Steve Bowen was.)
Then, you applied what you had learned from the interview to the research you
did on your favourite famous person to test Professor Ludwigs theory.
Finally, you personalised one of the themes in the interview being well-
adjusted and happy and you reflected on this in your own life. This was done
in a more light-hearted way and you realised that the quiz wanted you to score
B so that you could feel good about yourself.

344 | English sample lessons | Grade 11 Supreme Education Council 2004

 Tape script Interviewer: And time now for our interview of the day, and my guest in the
studio this afternoon is Steve Bowman. Steves been reading an
11F.2 absolutely wonderful book, so he tells me, all about how you may
have to sacrifice a lot of personal happiness if you genuinely want
to achieve great things. Steve, whats the book called and can you
please tell us what makes great achievers different from everyone
else?
Steve: Well, the main thing as I understand in this book, The Price of
Greatness by Professor Ludwig, which is truly a fascinating study
of great and original thinkers, Einstein, Picasso and so on, is that
they have an enormous an enormous inner drive to succeed.
Interviewer: Hmmm. Far higher, youd say, than the average person?
Steve: Much higher. And then theres the inborn talent. Its suggested in
the book that you need a precise blend of brain chemicals which
are inherited.
Interviewer: So parents do play a part?
Steve: Yes, indeed. But what is a lot more surprising is how much how
much the environment plays in extraordinary achievement. Most
people arent aware of the setbacks these people suffered. Did you
realise that a huge number of gifted people lost a parent before the
age of 14? Others suffered from, you know a genetic disability
of some kind. Or had a major illness like polio or TB before
adulthood.
Interviewer: So Steinbeck wouldnt have become a great writer if he hadnt had
pneumonia as a teenager?
Steve: That sort of idea, yes.
Interviewer: Ah, well, I I dont know. Surely a great many people got
terrible illnesses, they lost a mum or dad well especially if youre
talking about the past and they didnt go on to split the atom or
whatever.
Steve: Its the combination of many factors thats important. Obviously;
many people have got got problems but are not going to be the
next Nobel prizewinner. With great achievers, you cant just pick
out one or two factors. Its a very complex web.
Interviewer: What other factors might you reasonably expect to find?
Steve: Clever but frustrated parents, erm, possibly brothers and sisters
who they may have close but difficult relationships with, all these
factors
Interviewer: But you would expect these well, these setbacks to be, er, very
damaging to their future chances, wouldnt you? And youre
saying they were not, in fact?
Steve: It seems that such children suffered from a feeling of well, a
a feeling of inferiority, of not being good enough, which pushed
them onwards to achieve more and more.

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 Interviewer: Hmmm. So as adults, many of them will have ended with a very
unhappy emotional life though, wont they? Theyve probably
suffered from depression what Professor Ludwig calls a sense
of psychological unease. Well, Steve, youve told us about the very
many drawbacks these people have. What does the budding genius
seem to need?
Steve: Peace and quiet. They need to bury themselves in work. As
children, theyre loners and spend a lot of time by themselves.
Interviewer: And what might you tell parents who might well, you know
might like to think theyre bringing up the next Nobel prizewinner?
Steve: If you want your child to be well, you know, well adjusted, forget
about greatness. If you want your child to be kind to others and
what have you, youre cutting down your childs chances to excel.
Interviewer: Do any of us want children growing up burdened with well
youve described it very well as psychological unease?
Steve: Yes, it it may be that the the sacrifice of personal happiness
may indeed be the price of greatness. But, er, I wouldnt say that
you ought to stop trying to achieve your potential. Er think of it
this way: you might have an ordinary kid, who, well, mightnt be
the next superstar, the next Picasso, but everyones got their own
their own individual potential. Youve got to make the most of
that.
Interviewer: So how can ordinary children fulfil themselves?
Steve: Studies have shown that ordinary children who are well balanced
in their lives but achieve a lot they play football for school
leagues, or win prizes for chess, art, music or whatever well, its
5% talent and the rest is hard work.
Interviewer: Ah ha! So youre saying you dont have to give up all enjoyment
its important to keep a balance, isnt it?
Steve: Thats right. You can still have time to do the things you want to
do.
Interviewer: Thank you, Steve. Its good to end on that positive note.
Adapted from Success International Teachers Book by Marian Barry, Georgian Press 1998

346 | English sample lessons | Grade 11 Supreme Education Council 2004

 11A.1 Integrated skills: preparing
a presentation
Objectives Organise and prepare a ten-minute presentation on a topic that interests and
Grade 11A curriculum informs.
standards 5.7, 5.6
Practise formulaic phrases for addressing an audience to introduce and link
each stage of the presentation.
Presentation
Set the scene
Resources
Show the image of John Wayne on OHT 11A.1a.
OHT 11A.1a
Worksheet 11A.1a Read the quotation with the students. What do they think the message is here?
Teachers resource
11A.1 Pyramid prediction
Ask students to think about what makes a good presentation. Put them to work in
groups of four or five and ask them to think of important factors for a good
presentation. Each group should think of four or five factors.
preparation, interesting topic, good visuals, clear voice, good organisation
Get one group to join another and share their lists, adding any new ideas from the
other group. Repeat the process, getting the larger groups to join up, share and
compare lists. Collate the full class list of ideas on the board.
Hand out worksheet 11A.1a. Get students to complete the gapped phrases with
words from the box about what makes a good presentation.
Get groups to compare the phrases with their list on the board, adding anything
from the worksheet that they hadnt initially thought of.
Pelmanism
Before the lesson, prepare the cards from teachers resource 11A.1. Photocopy the
sheet enough times to have one sheet per pair of students. Cut up each sheet and
stick the boxes onto cards. Put the students into pairs. Hand out one set of cards to
each pair.
Tell the students to imagine that they were about to give a presentation. They had
outlined a plan and had put each stage for the presentation on a card. They had also
written short introductory sentences or phrases for each stage of the presentation.
However, just before giving the presentation, they had dropped all the cards and
got them mixed up. Now they have to order the cards again, matching each
presentation stage with its correct introductory sentence.
Place the cards face down on the table. Students take it in turns to turn up two
cards. They have to find a complementary pair: name of presentation stage and
introductory sentence. If the pair of upturned cards are not complementary, then
the cards are turned back over, in exactly the same place that they came from. If the
pair of upturned cards are complementary, the student who turned them up takes
them. When all the pairs have been claimed, the one with the most pairs wins. (The
way to gain a pair is to remember which card is where when it gets turned up and
then turned back over).

347 | English sample lessons | Grade 11 Supreme Education Council 2004

 Ordering
Get students to discuss the order of the presentation stages and to put their cards
from the Pelmanism game into that order.
Answer key

State subject of presentation I want to talk to you today about

Invite questions Please interrupt if you have anything you would

Lead into part 1: overview of main
issues
Summarise and close part 1
Link to part 2: options
Visual aids to show figures and
factual information
Summarise and close part 2
like to ask.
So lets start with the big picture.
To sum up, the main issues we are dealing with
today are
Now I would like to go over some of the choices
we face.
As you can see from this [graph]
Ive just outlined for you the decisions we face.

Move on to part 3: actions required
Effects of action: the future of the
topic
Close
Id like to suggest some solutions that I feel will
work.
Hopefully, in the future
Thank you for your attention.

Invite further questions Does anyone have any further questions or

comments?

Practice
Tell the students that they are going to plan and, in the next lesson, give a
Resources presentation on a chosen topic. They have to speak for ten minutes each. Put
OHT 11A.1b students into groups of three. Explain that each group of three will prepare a
Worksheet 11A.1b different presentation from the list of topics on OHT 11A.1b. Give each student
the presentation plan framework on worksheet 11A.1b. Get them to use this
framework to organise and plan their presentations. Tell them to find information
on their topic from the Internet or the library and to complete this research for
homework (including visual aids). Monitor, help with ideas, get students to practise
linking one stage of the presentation to the next with the phrases given in the
framework.
Stage 1 (this lesson): Preparation, in groups of 3
Group 1 Global warming
Group 2 The digital divide
Group 3 Women in the workplace
Group 4 Endangered species
Group 5 Human rights
Group 6 Globalisation
Group 7 Animal testing
Group 8 Poverty
Group 9 Pollution

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 Stage 2 (next lesson): Cross-group presentations
Cross-group students into new groups. Tell them to take turns to give their
presentation to their new group, speaking for ten minutes each.
Groups 1, 2, 3 Global warming, The digital divide, Women in the workplace
Groups 4, 5, 6 Endangered species, Human rights, Globalisation
Groups 7, 8, 9 Animal testing, Poverty, Pollution
Production
Get students to write key notes for each section on ten cards. Notes should be very
brief and the headings should stand out clearly. Tell them to put their cards in order
and give them time to individually rehearse what they will say. Get students to then
take it in turns to stand up and practise delivering their presentations in their
groups. Other group members should participate by asking the anticipated
questions and then giving feedback to improve the presenters use of English,
presentation of ideas, organisation, body language, ability to handle questions.
Monitor, spending a short time with each group, correcting, inputting the link
phrases if students are leaving them out. In particular, get students to practise
summing up before moving on to the next section. Focus on less-confident students
and make a point of getting them to rehearse in front of their peers.
Feedback
Give individual feedback to each presenter you observe, after the presentations are
over. Sandwich can improve-type comments between good points you have
observed, to build students' confidence. Focus on clarity, fluency, communication
and presentation skills rather than students accuracy of language.

Summary for students

In this lesson, we prepared a ten-minute presentation which you will actually give
in the next lesson. You looked at good presentation skills: thorough preparation,
good organisation, enthusiasm for the subject, creative use of visual aids, clear
voice and positive body language. You learned some useful phrases for addressing
an audience. These phrases helped you to introduce, link and sum up the different
stages of your presentation. You then began to plan your own presentation,
choosing from a list of topics which have complex issues. You researched the topic
from various sources such as the Internet and the library. You used a framework to
plan and organise your ideas and you then transferred these notes onto cards that
you could speak from. You rehearsed your presentations with a sympathetic
audience of co-planners. These are the stages you should go through every time
you have to plan a presentation.

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 11A.2 Reading and summarising a
text: Hair
Objectives Make detailed notes from reading an information text.
Grade 11A curriculum
Write a summary of about half the length of the original text.
standards 9.8, 9.3

Pre-reading
Some of the procedure and materials for this lesson are adapted from New
Resources Hotline Intermediate by Tom Hutchinson, Oxford University Press 1998.
OHT 11A.2
Awareness raising
Get students to think about occasions when they might have to take notes to
summarise something. Get them to brainstorm these in small groups and then share
and compare their ideas.
writing up ideas in an essay from a lecture or a long text
taking a telephone message
writing a review for a magazine or a newspaper
writing an executive summary or a synopsis for a business report
talking conversationally about something interesting theyve read
Set the scene
Tell the students they are going to read a text, which they will later summarise.
Show the students OHT 11A.2. Elicit that the subject of the summary will be hair
and hairstyles. Get students to look at the pictures on the OHT one by one; ask the
students what they think of the styles.
Can you see yourself with such a style?
What sort of people would have this kind of hairstyle?
Get them to think of words to describe each of the hairstyles and build a list of
relevant vocabulary with them.
dreadlocks, braided, styled, punk, a Mohican, straight, waist-length, even
ragged, standing-up, spiky, bald, shaved
While reading
Reading comprehension
Resources
Hand out worksheet 11A.2a. Get the students to look at the text and choose a
Worksheets 11A.2a, suitable title and write it at the top.
11A.2b
Possible ideas include:
The hair on your head
The purpose of hair
Hair: whats it for?
Hand out worksheet 11A.2b. Get students to work their way through the
worksheet completing the variety of tasks.

350 | English sample lessons | Grade 11 Supreme Education Council 2004

 Answer key
Section A
1 1 plait d an interlocking hairstyle for women
2 dye a a chemical used to change the colour of something
3 versatile k useful for many reasons
4 follicle j the small hole in your head from which a hair grows
5 perming g making your hair wavy
6 bleaching l using a chemical to make the hair lighter
7 wig h false hair
8 monks f religious men
9 samurai e ancient Japanese warriors
10 Rasta b a religious group from Jamaica
11 dreadlocks i the hairstyle worn by a religious group from Jamaica
12 skinhead c a youth group who have very short hair
13 stubble m very short hair

2 a Qatari a person from Sweden 9

Because: fair-haired people have more hair follicles than people with dark hair.

curly wavy straight

Section B
1 (a) To protect our head from the sun
(b) About six years
(c) 50 to 100
(d) Cut it into shapes, grow it long, decorate it with ribbons and slides, plait it, tie in a
bun, colour it, straighten it, make it curly, darken or lighten it.
(e) Rasta, skinheads, punks
(f) Army, Sikhs

2 Apart from protection, hair tells us a lot about you as a person 9

3 Here is a rewritten version of paragraph 2. The original is 77 words, this version is 48
words, just over half the length. Unnecessary words have been crossed out and
necessary changes or replacements have been made in italic.
The average human head has over 100 000 separate hair numerous follicles and which
each follicle produces one hair. Fair-haired people have more than dark-haired people,
but nobody knows why. If left uncut, you didnt cut your hair it would continue each hair
grows ing until it reached your knees. Each hair very long, stops growing after about six
years, then falls out Then three months later, and is replaced by a new hair. starts
growing from the follicle. We all lose between fifty and to a hundred hairs a day.

351 | English sample lessons | Grade 11 Supreme Education Council 2004

 4 Here is a version of paragraph 3 rewritten without examples of what the hairdressers
can do and with some grammar changes.
Everyones hair is different, but There are three basic hair types curly, wavy and
straight. But you dont have to keep the type of hair that you were born with and you
neednt worry if you dont like your new style it will always grow again.
5 If you dont want to wait for it to grow, you can wear a wig.

6 Here is a summary of paragraph 5.

Hair has always been a strong symbol of group identity,. It has been used by groups
from monks to Samurai warriors. We can see the same thing today. The Rastas
dreadlocks, the to skinheads s stubble and the punks spikes are all symbols of group
identity.
Here is a summary of paragraph 6.
Many of the things that we do with hair wouldnt be possible without a lot of equipment
and cosmetics. brushes, combs, hairdryers, shampoo, conditioner, gel, mousse,
grease and hairspray. Confusing, isnt it? But dont worry. Next week we are starting a
new series on You And Your Hair. Maybe You could change your whole image!

7 The full summary should be approximately half the original length; this summary is 154
words. (This can be started in class and completed for homework.)
Apart from protection, hair tells us a lot about you as a person
The head has numerous follicles which each produce one hair. Fair-haired people have
more than dark-haired people. If left uncut, each hair grows very long, stops after about
six years, falls out and is replaced by a new hair. We lose fifty to a hundred hairs a day.
There are three basic hair types curly, wavy and straight. But you dont have to keep
the type you were born with and if you dont like your new style it will grow again.
If you dont want to wait for it to grow, you can wear a wig.
Hair has been a symbol of group identity from Samurai to skinheads.
Many of the things that we do with hair wouldnt be possible without equipment and
cosmetics. Next week we start a series on You And Your Hair. You could change your
image!

Post-reading /
Mark students summaries and analyse the most common errors: not being severe
Writing enough in the editing process (still including too much); not identifying the main
Resources
points; not having the courage to use their own words; being too mechanical in the
process and losing sight of clarity in the text; changing the meaning by cutting and
Worksheets 11A.2a,
11A.2b pasting the wrong parts. Present these common errors to the class and get students
to do a second draft.
Feedback
Instead of giving feedback at this point, wait until you have corrected students'
second draft. Then take time in the lesson as you hand back their work to explain
your marking scheme, your criteria for assessment and the main issues in writing
students should focus on. Give students class time to work on their own
corrections.

352 | English sample lessons | Grade 11 Supreme Education Council 2004

 Summary for students

This lesson gave you a series of steps for writing summaries of written texts and
reducing them to about half the original length. This is the process.
1 Read the text, understand the main ideas and separate these from the details.
2 Identify the topic sentence in each paragraph.
3 Cross out unnecessary, less important information such as examples, details.
4 Use your own vocabulary and knowledge of English to reduce sentences and
phrases to their main idea only.
5 Make any necessary grammatical changes.
6 Check the final summary for overall clarity and cohesion making sure you
havent changed the original meaning.
Usually, the main problem with writing summaries is that you dont have the
courage to edit it enough or to impose your own vocabulary or style on it. Dont be
afraid of cutting out whole sentences if they dont add any new ideas.
Summary writing is a skill. You need to practise doing it a lot.

353 | English sample lessons | Grade 11 Supreme Education Council 2004